


Ghost Story

by GaryTheFish



Series: Hope is a Four Letter Word [33]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Loki - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 13:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7687168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GaryTheFish/pseuds/GaryTheFish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(What is a force that binds the stars?<br/>I wore this mask to hide my scars<br/>What is the power that moves the tide?<br/>Never could find a place to hide</p><p>What moves the earth around the sun?<br/>What could I do but run and run and run?<br/>Afraid to love, afraid to fail<br/>A mast without a sail)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghost Story

 

Loki stood with the others waiting in the international terminal, trying not to check the arrivals board too frequently. Once he had determined that her plane had landed, he found a chair, shifting his focus to not checking his phone too frequently for the note she was going to send when she was through customs. _No souvenirs_ , she’d messaged before getting on her plane hours earlier, _as promised. I saved all the adventures for when we can do them together and therefore may or may not have been accused of being the most boring tourist ever. Honestly, the sacrifices I make for you, but at least customs should be a breeze. Nothing to declare except a frank breach of our no-purchases-at-all agreement in the face of an entire store filled with a certain ex-god’s favorite brand of tea, including several types not available stateside. Fight me._

He smirked a little as he read the message over again, and his smile got bigger as her long-awaited text came through. Loki pulled a few things from his bag and then joined the line of smartly-dressed drivers waiting to pick up visiting businessmen and conference attendees.

Aeslin appeared after a few excruciating moments, pulling her suitcase behind her and pushing hair from her face with her free hand. She took one look at his suit and tie, the sign in his hand ( _Doctor-not-Doctor-again-Doctor-Professor Kindle, King’s College, London_ ) and the flower he carried and burst into giggles.

“It should be hydrangeas,” he said with a matching grin, handing the bloomed ranunculus to her and giving her a business-like peck on the cheek, “but I mentioned to the shopkeeper that they were meant for a beautiful woman, and she was _horrified_. I had no idea there was a whole language devoted to flowers; she wouldn’t let me leave her shop with a bouquet of sheer heartlessness, so instead, please accept this celebration of your devastating radiance.”

She took the flower with appropriate gravity and a gentle twitch in her lip. “Thank you. Do I get an actual kiss?”

He reached behind her and took the handle to her suitcase. “Seems a little unprofessional,” he told her with a smirk. “I’m just your driver, after all.”

***

His suit coat neatly draped across the back seat and sleeves rolled up, Loki loosened his tie as he merged into traffic.

“Anywhere we need to be?” she asked, and he shook his head.

“I took the entire day,” he replied. “We can do whatever we’d like. Are you hungry? Tired? You’ve been cooped up for a while; perhaps a walk? I’m at your disposal, little one, so how would you like to dispose of me?” He gave her a deliberately goofy grin.

She tapped her lip thoughtfully. “Probably not a bike trail, or a hiking path,” she said. “If _Law & Order _has taught me nothing else, it’s that the bodies seem to be found too quickly.”

“Agreed.”

“What about the mountains? Lots of things up there to get rid of the evidence. Bears, squirrels, you name it. We could go to that place we went to a few weeks ago.”

A laugh. “You’re assuming I’m going to be able to find it again. I haven’t gotten lost _that_ thoroughly in decades.”

“Something close, then.”

“An excellent plan.”

They stopped at a store to cobble together a picnic lunch, and Loki grabbed his bag from the cargo area, ducking into the bathroom to change while she checked out. Much more comfortable, he found himself relaxing as he drove and she dozed for the time it took him to reach the state park outside Malibu and to find the area they’d jokingly claimed as their own a few weeks prior. Quiet, off the beaten path enough that most didn’t know it was there. The walk in was short, and soon the battered blanket they kept in the car was spread out, weighed down at the corners with rocks, and they tossed grapes at each other, trying to catch them in their mouths as she regaled him with stories of her flight.

A long while later, he lay on his back, staring up at the brilliant blue sky, and she flopped down onto her stomach, tucking herself against his ribs. She propped her head on one hand, using the other to trace patterns along his t-shirt, and he slid his arm beneath hers and around her body, resting one hand on her lower back and the other behind his head. She crossed her ankles in the air behind her, and he watched her face as she thoughtfully ran her fingers along the soft cotton of his shirt.

“I have a confession,” she said suddenly, and his brows went up, wanting to make a joke, but something in her face stopped him.

“I’m listening,” he merely replied instead, but she remained silent, intent on the interlinked circles her fingers were drawing on his chest. At last she pushed herself up, coming to a cross-legged position; he mirrored her pose, their knees almost touching, and looked at her encouragingly. She refused to meet his gaze; instead she looked at her hands a little helplessly as though she wasn’t sure what to do with them anymore, and he swallowed against a sudden pit in his stomach.

“I don’t think it’s bad,” she went on, “but I’ve had to practice what I’m going to say a few times, and it was just… much easier to do when you weren’t sitting right here.”

He smiled a little, then reached forward and stilled her hands. “Then let’s try this,” he offered. “We’ll pack up and go back to the house. I’ll lock myself in a closet, and you can pass notes through the door. Just like old times. Would that help?”

She smirked, mood broken for the moment. “That was one time. _One time_. And what, two sentences?”

“Three,” he corrected, reaching forward to brush a tendril of hair from her face. “I memorized them.”

That did earn him a look. “What on earth for?”

“Just in case.” He shrugged as he wrapped the curl loosely around his finger. “And I’m glad I did, because I lost the note.”

“Lost the n- when?”

“New York, probably just after I was taken during the battle. I assume the Chitauri searched me when they stripped me of my weapons; it stands to reason they would have taken anything in my pockets, too.”

“You kept it that whole time?” Her brow knit a little. “Why?”

“Because it made me happy,” he said, “at a time when very little else did.” He laughed, suddenly a little self-conscious. “And I was so _proud_ of you. Granted, my ideas on what constituted a thesis defense were a little different then, but even had I known then what I know now, I doubt it would have changed a thing. If anything, I would have been even more impressed with your skills at persuasion.”

“Next you’re going to tell me I haunted your very dreams.”

He stayed silent, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth as he looked at her.

“Oh, no.”

“Just once. Well, one _night_ ,” he clarified. “Iceland.”

A blink.“ _T_ _hat_ explains a couple of things.”

“It wasn’t unwelcome,” he went on. “Quite the opposite, actually. But it _was_ unexpected, not to mention - what’s your phrase? Com _plete_ ly inappropriate.”

She laughed a little helplessly. “They usually are.” A shake of her head. “Poor Scott. No wonder he thought you were going to kill him.”

“He was lucky that I was already awake when he knocked. Otherwise, yes. I fear it could have gone very badly for him.” He took one of her hands in his, fingers following the lines on her palm as he tried to explain.

“It made sense, really,” he told her. “I was free of New York and Asgard both. I was challenged. I was accepted. I was trusted. I was happier than I’d been in months, and it was all your doing. I was grateful for your kindness, and even then I thought you lovely. My subconscious did the rest. They were pleasant and diverting, a little surprising, and quite thought-provoking. I thought it was just a passing fancy at the time. It would appear that I was wrong.” He tightened his fingers around hers, then let go and sat back with a faint smile.

“So that’s _two_ confessions from me, little one. I think it’s your turn now.”

Aeslin took a long, deep breath, and her voice was rapid when she spoke. “I didn’t need seven days in London. I only needed four plus one recovery day, but I wanted the others to have some time to think.” She closed her eyes, and the pit reopened in Loki’s stomach.

“About?”

“You. Us.” She opened her eyes again and seemed to notice the stricken look on Loki’s face for the first time; she reached forward with careful fingers. “I told you I didn’t think it was bad,” she said gently. “Just difficult.” She kept his gaze this time. “The hole isn’t closed, Loki. It’s nowhere _near_ closed, and every time I think it might be even a little smaller, something will happen that tears it right open again. It doesn’t really matter what. A week ago, it was an ad for a movie. Yesterday morning, it was cologne and a suit on the Tube. This morning it was walking past a coffee shop in Heathrow.” She stroked her fingers across his. “I know you’re worried that when the hole is closed, there won’t be room for you. That I only have a place for you while I’m hurting or lost, and I want you to stop thinking that right this second. There _is_ a place for you, Loki, and I know there is because I’ve made you one. I know my heart, Loki. I found it, and it belongs to you. It has for ages.”

She gave no sign at the pain he knew she must be feeling as he crushed her fingers helplessly in his hand; she merely went on. “I’m tired of losing people, but more than that, I’m tired of being afraid. I don’t want to live in fear anymore. I’m not _going_ to, so instead, I’m _going_ to say what I’ve been practicing because I am not going to waste a good forty-eight hours of rehearsal time.” Another deep breath as she searched his face. “I love you, Loki. I don’t care if you’re the son of Frigga, son of Laufey, king of Asgard, ex-god, frost giant - it doesn’t matter to me what you are. None of that does. I love _you_. Everything you are, everything you’re not, everything you’ve become and were all along. _You_. And I want for us to be together.”

He stared at her a little dumbly, his mind racing, and her answering smile was shy. “And I’m kind of running out of things to tell you right now, so if you could maybe see your way to saying something or maybe giving me that kiss you wouldn’t in the airport, it might-”

 _That_ , at least, he understood, and he caught the last of her words on his lips as he yanked her toward him; he let her words burn and flow through his veins as he kissed her, making sure every part of him heard and would remember how they sounded.

They broke apart after a long moment, grinning stupidly at each other, and he at last found some words.

“Does this mean I can woo you? Finally court you? Officially? Thoroughly?”

She leaned back, her face curious. “You mean you haven't been already?”

He stared back in shock, then stroked her cheek kindly. “Oh, darling,” he said. “You poor, sweet, naive, mis _treated_ thing. Is _that_ what you thought it was?”

“I’ll take that as a no?” her lip quirked.

“No,” he told her with a mischievous wink. “ _That_ was me getting warmed up.”

 

\---

 

_( It's time that I confessed_

_I must have loved you_

_I must have loved you)_

 

**Author's Note:**

> (And inside every turning leaf  
> Is the pattern of an older tree  
> The shape of our future  
> The shape of all our history  
> And out of the confusion  
> Where the river meets the sea  
> Came things I'd never seen  
> Things I'd never seen  
> I was brought to my senses  
> I was blind but now that I can see  
> Every signpost in nature  
> Said you belong to me
> 
> I know it's true  
> It's written in a sky as blue  
> As blue as your eyes, as blue as your eyes  
> If nature's red in tooth and claw  
> Like winter's freeze and summer's thaw  
> The wounds she gave me  
> Were the wounds that would heal me  
> And we'd be like the moon and sun  
> And when our courtly dance had run  
> Its course across the sky  
> Then together we would lie  
> And out of the confusion  
> Where the river meets the sea  
> Something new would arrive  
> Something better would arrive  
> I was brought to my senses  
> I was blind but now that I can see  
> Every signpost in nature  
> Said you belong to me)
> 
> Title and first two lyrics from "Ghost Story" by Sting. End notes from "I Was Brought To My Senses", also by Sting.
> 
> Lots of feedback appreciated! Not beta read because I wanted it to be a surprise. :) Love you all! <3 Happy Fluffy Friday!


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